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What Happened to Iranian Kurdish Activist
Ehsan Fattahian?
18.11.2009
By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles
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November 18, 2009
In early morning of Wednesday, November 11, 2009,
Ehsan Fattahian, a 28-year-old Kurdish activist, was
executed in Sanandaj, the provincial capital of
Kurdistan. He was a member of Komalah, a Marxist
opposition group that has been active against the
central government in Tehran since the 1960s.
Fattahian had been arrested on July 20, 2008, in
Kamyaran in Kurdistan and charged with "working with
armed opposition groups." He was put on trial by the
Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj. Like most political
trials in Iran, the entire proceedings were behind
closed doors and without an independent jury, in
direct violation of Article 168 of Iran's
Constitution. He was also denied an attorney,
another violation of law. Fattahian rejected all
charges against him. His family also stated that he
had done nothing illegal.
The Revolutionary Court sentenced Fattahian to 10
years in prison, to be served in exile in Ramhormoz,
a city in Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran.
Both Fattahian and the prosecutor appealed the
verdict.
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Ehsan (Esma’il) Fattahian. The Iranian
regime hanged Mr. Fattahian, 27, a Kurdish political
prisoner from impoverished Kurdistan region of Iran,
in Sanandaj central prison on November 11, 2009 |
In
January 2009, the Appeals Court overturned the
initial verdict. But instead of reducing the
sentence or ordering a new trial, the Appeals Court
sentenced Fattahian to death on the charge of
Moharebeh, or enmity against God.
The new sentence also represented a violation of
Iran's laws. Article 285 of the law, which pertains
to the Appeal Courts, states that a sentence can be
increased by the Appeals Court only if the initial
sentence given to the convicted is less than the
minimum sentence for the offense. In Fattahian's
case,www.ekurd.netthe
minimum sentence for the offense with which he had
been charged was one year in jail, but he had been
given a sentence of 10 years in exile. Therefore, in
handing down a death sentence, the Appeal Court
grossly violated the relevant law.
In addition, a death sentence can usually be
appealed. But, in Fattahian's case, the death
sentence was never subject to an appeal, in
violation of both Iranian and international laws.
Moreover, given that Fattahian was a political
prisoner, giving him a death sentence for a purely
political offense, even if all the charges against
him were completely true, was highly unusual and
inappropriate according to the basic human rights
standards.
All appeals made to the Islamic Republic by
international organizations, as well as his family,
not to execute the young man, were ignored. As
international pressure mounted, the government
appeared to suspend the execution. But it now
appears that that was only a tactic to lessen
pressure.
Before he was executed, Fattahian and several other
Kurdish political prisoners went on a hunger strike
for several days. Fattahian never accepted the
charges against him, even though there were reports
that he had been tortured to confess. He was
transferred to solitary confinement on November 10,
and was not even allowed to see his family one last
time before being executed, which is neither Islamic
nor humane.
The circumstances surrounding Fattahian's execution
are suspicious. Not only was his family not allowed
to see him one last time before the execution, his
body was never returned to his family, despite an
official announcement to the contrary. He had been
buried in a cemetery in Kermanshah, his hometown in
western Iran, after which his family was informed of
his burial site. His family was ordered to have a
"quiet" memorial for him.
Human rights advocate Shirin Ebadi, a lawyer who won
the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, winner, has called the
circumstances of Fattahian's execution and burial
unusual. In an interview with BBC Persian radio,
Ebadi called the execution of Fattahian "rushed" and
"unprecedented." She said she found it highly
objectionable that his family was not allowed to
meet with him before his execution. Ebadi said the
haste to bury Fattahian was another reason for
"further suspicion." It is very unusual that they
[the government] want to execute someone in such a
rush that they do not let his family meet him on his
last night," she said. "This is a very unusual
approach that raises more suspicion about the real
cause of death."
Ebadi reiterated, "I do not want to prejudge... but
because of the inappropriate treatment in Iran's
prisons, and especially [the treatment of] political
prisoners, which unfortunately has become the norm,
it is only fair to doubt Ehsan's cause of death."
"I suggest to the family of the late Fattahian to
have his body examined by a trusted medical doctor,
to make sure that he did not pass away in jail under
difficult conditions," Ebadi was quoted in an
interview with Rooz, the online daily. "It is not
very likely that this may have happened, but it is
better not to reject it outright either."
As Ebadi said, the probability that Fattahian passed
away in jail, before he was hanged is small, if that
actually did happen, it would not be the first time
that a political prisoner passed away in an Iranian
jail under suspicious circumstances. Ali Akbar Saidi
Sirjani, a well-known writer died in prison in
November 1994. It is widely believed that he was
murdered by the agents of Ministry of Intelligence.
Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian-Iranian photojournalist,
died in custody in Evin Prison in June 2003. Medical
examination of her body indicated that she had died
from a fractured skull, and had been beaten and
possibly raped.
Akbar Mohammadi, a student activist, passed away in
the Evin on July 30, 2006. He had been arrested for
participating in the university student
demonstrations of July 1999 and sentenced to 15
years in prison. Dr. Zahra Bani Yaghoub, a
27-year-old physician, died in October 2007 while in
custody in Hamedan, in western Iran. Ebrahim
Lotfallahi died in a detention center in Sanandaj
around January 15, 2008. His parents were informed
on January 15 that their son had been buried in a
local cemetery. Abdolreza Rajabi,www.ekurd.neta
member of the Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organization,
passed away suddenly on October 30, 2008. It is not
even clear where he died, because he had been
transferred from Evin prison to Rajaei Shahr prison
near Karaj before his death was officially
announced.
Valiollah Faez Mahdavi died in prison after a hunger
strike, but the official cause of his death was
suicide. On March 6, 2009, Amir Hossein Heshmat
Saran passed away in jail after 5 years in prison.
He had been imprisoned for founding a political
group, the United National Front. Omid-Reza Mir
Sayafi, a blogger, passed away in Evin prison on
March 18, 2009, about six weeks after starting a
30-month sentence.
Fattahian was not the only Kurdish activist on death
row. Twelve others are on death row: Zeynab Jalalian,
Habib Latifi, Shirkouh Moarefi, Ramezan Ahmad, Farha
Chalesh, Rostam Arkia, Fazih Yasamini, Rashid
Akhkandi, Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili, Hossein
Khazari, and Farzad Kamangar. Of these, Moarefi, 24,
has apparently been transferred to solitary
confinement, a move which usually precedes
execution. He was arrested last year in Saghez in
Kurdistan and was convicted and sentenced to death.
Amnesty International and Moarefi's parents have
called on the government not to execute him. "The
Iranian authorities must halt the imminent execution
of Shirkouh Moarefi, a Kurdish man convicted of
'enmity against God' over his alleged membership of
a proscribed Kurdish organization," Amnesty said in
its statement. "We demand all international forums
and human rights groups... to enter into negotiation
with the Islamic Republic in connection to his
execution." Amnesty International has listed Iran as
the world's second most prolific executioner in
2008, only after China. By its estimate, Iran put to
death at least 346 people last year.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency,
Tehran Bureau | pbs org
Iranian Kurdistan
**
Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Kurdistana Îranę or
Kurdistana Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) or Rojhilatę
Kurdistan (East of Kurdistan)) is an unofficial name
for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has
borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes the
greater parts of West Azerbaijan province, Kurdistan
Province, Kermanshah Province, and Ilam Province.
Kurds form the majority of the population of this
region with an estimated population of 4 million.
The region is the eastern part of the greater
cultural-geographical area called Kurdistan.
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